Judge: Criminal case against Cosby can proceed

The sexual assault case against Bill Cosby may go forward, Judge Steven T. O’Neill ruled Wednesday.

Cosby’s lawyers had argued for two days during a pretrial hearing that a criminal case had been barred by a promise made in 2005 by then-District Attorney Bruce Castor never to prosecute the renowned entertainer.

Cosby’s attorneys sought to dismiss the case on the grounds that he made a deal with a previous district attorney that he would not be prosecuted in connection with Andrea Constand’s allegations of sexual assault in 2004.

A Pennsylvania district attorney says his predecessor had no authority to make an agreement with Bill Cosby’s lawyers that the comedian would never face criminal charges in a decade-old sexual assault case.

Constand is one of more than 50 women who have alleged the former TV star and comedian drugged and sexually assaulted them during the past half century.

In the civil court deposition, Cosby acknowledged obtaining quaaludes to give to women he wanted to seduce.

Testimony on Wednesday focused on the much-debated 2005 “no-prosecution” deal that Cosby says shields him from prosecution now. In the Pennsylvania case, the statute of limitations is set to expire early next year.

Castor testified he had concerns about Constand waiting a year before reporting the assault and contacting a lawyer before going to police, 6ABC News reported.

Castor testified Tuesday that he agreed to not prosecute Cosby, as long as the comedian agreed to testify fully in a separate civil case Constand filed, the Associated Press reported.

O’Neill rejected Cosby’s attempt to get the case thrown out on those grounds.

“We did that knowing the criminal matter had been concluded and could not be reopened”, Schmitt said, adding if they’d known Cosby would be a court room in 2016 for the same case, “we certainly wouldn’t let him sit for a deposition”. Constand and Cosby later reached a settlement out of court. The Cosby legal team had been trying to get the case dismissed, after the investigation was revived in the wake of lurid, decade-old testimony by Cosby in a civil case that was unsealed past year.

The ruling was a setback for Cosby, who has starred in films, TV shows and stand-up comedy appearances for decades.

Cosby’s attorneys refused to allow him to answer questions about the alleged incident that occurred between he and Constand so they had to file a motion to compel his cooperation, which the judge granted. No other written record of that agreement has been presented by either side. Under questioning then, Cosby admitted giving pills to Constand to “take some of the stress away” before he lifted her bra and slid a hand into her trousers.

A lawyer for the woman accusing Bill Cosby of a 2004 sex assault is challenging a former district attorney’s account of how that case was handled. Cosby uses a cane, and his eyesight is said to be deteriorating.

Defence attorneys on Tuesday presented a 2005 press release from Castor’s office that they said amounted to an agreement not to prosecute Cosby.